Page 14 of Heart of Dawn
“Me too,” I said, thoughts turning to my mate.
How to get him out of Faery?
I’d almost got the answer about him, the last part of the mind walk showing me Orion, hitting me with his cherry scent. He came into my life for a reason. Not just for love, but to help save the world from Dawn.
Trev, the oracle, told me about the power of my blood. The troll got his power from a shaman in his village. Roseanne. She’d foreseen Dawn, cryptically, before giving her life to serve the greater good.
She’d said,“Piece by piece, the undead will evolve until they unlock their true power—a power the selfish fools and those who manipulated them never envisioned.”
God, what a sharp dose of reality. The biters were definitely changing, a future of serious nastiness waiting for us if I didn’t end Dawn soon. All because of Project Dawn, a pack of lies, and my parents saving my life as a child. My dad gave over his magic-enhancing sleeper blood in exchange for something called Booster Serum Fifty-five. That stuff made me an alpha, saving me from a rare condition where the shifter gene killed a child on their first shift at the age of three.
Dad’s blood ended up helping Dawn come to be—which, clearly, was a massive mistake. Project Dawn wasn’t a miraclecure. So, what was it? And where did Orion fit into this? I’d been dreaming of him before I met him, coming to think it was down to him being my mate.
But there was more to it.
He comes, this scarlet-haired man, bearing a golden gift in his hand. For you. It is for you. It is for hope. He is hope.
Fuck it. I needed answers. I needed him despite having to die to change the world.
Trev’s words echoed in my head:“Miko Reyes, you are the first son of the blood giver. Your father’s blood flows in Dawn. He is the maker. The blood of his blood ends Dawn. You are the only blood. You are the first and only son. Give your blood to end this curse. All your blood. Your life for Dawn’s ending.”
How could I leave Ori behind? How could I find peace in the afterlife knowing I’d found love here?
Because there’s more,my inner voice said.He’s another key.
Enough of this shit. Right now, I set my focus on saving my pack and getting Orion back. Or maybe I should just head off to Dunstable and find the heart of Dawn, end this once and for all.
No. Not without seeing my people again.
Unease spiked in my guts. What if the biters evolved to unstoppable levels? Or made it impossible to go north?
Shit. I flexed my hands, keeping a lid on my fury. Lance did this, telling the fae our location at the Gilmore family’s farm. Once again, that prick shat on my life. He?—
No. Fuck him. Thinking of him clouded my brain. I needed sharper focus, all senses firing to get this done.
“This is the plan,” I said, slipping into leader mode. “We search for Basil’s scent. His will be the strongest. Sniff for cookies.”
The vampires nodded, falling under my command as if part of my pack.
“Then we follow his scent, kill us some magi, and free my people,” I added. “After that, we figure out how to get into Faery.”
The vampires looked at each other, and once again grinned from ear to ear.
“Glad to see you agree,” I said.
Joe stiffened, holding up a hand. “Be quiet.”
I fell in line this time.
I heard the footsteps seconds later. Slow and purposeful, heavy breathing coming from someone outside the door.
“I will find the wolf who threatens me,” a man said in the crackly, unnerving tone of Dawn. “I am his end. I am Dawn.”
Shit.
CHAPTER SEVEN
ORION
